A 40-year-old South Carolina woman is charged with attempted murder after she attacked a man, severing his ear while trying to decapitate him, deputies say.

Deputies were called to a home on Mema Lane in Seneca about a disturbance involving a man and a woman. They found April Dawn Townsend in the yard of the home. She told deputies that a man was inside the house.

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Deputies found smoke coming from the house but no one inside.

Deputies said as they spoke to Townsend, she appeared to be oblivious to what was going and they had a hard time getting her to respond. They said they also discovered burned hair on Townsend’s clothing.

Deputies later learned that the man involved in the disturbance was at the hospital receiving treatment for injuries. When they spoke with the man, he told them that Townsend previously threatened him and told him that other people were coming to crucify her.

Townsend attacked the man on Sunday, deputies say. She put two plastic bags over his head and swung a machete at his head to try to decapitate him, cutting his ear off, warrants say. She then threw an ax at him, warrants say.

The man said Townsend tried to set his truck on fire by putting paper in the fuel door and lighting it and by putting a gas can on paper in the bed of the truck and setting it on fire. Deputies confirmed that the truck had evidence that someone had tried to set it on fire.

Townsend was arrested just before 1 p.m. Sunday. She is charged with attempted murder, second-degree arson, attempted arson and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime.

This is the second time Townsend has been accused of trying to kill someone with a plastic bag.

Townsend was charged with attempted murder in August 2015.

Townsend told deputies who were called to a home on Cassidy Bridge Road that "she had to release the demons" and she was the “higher power."

In that case, Townsend’s brother-in-law called 911.

"He heard April yelling at Mama and saw her sitting on top of her," Townsend’s sister, Tonya Moore told WYFF. "Mama had several plastic bags over her head and April had her hands around Mama's neck."

Deputies found Townsend’s 66-year-old mother unresponsive on the floor with plastic bags over her head.

Townsend held her mother down and prevented her from breathing until she was unconscious, the arrest warrant said.

A deputy successfully performed CPR on the victim until paramedics arrived.

Moore said the attack caused Steward to suffer multiple strokes and left her disabled.